HR: 11:35h
AN: SA42A-06    [Abstracts]
TI: Lidar and the Mars Upper Atmosphere
AU: * Swenson, G R
EM: swenson1@uiuc.edu
AF: University of Illinois, Electrical and Computer Engineering, 1308 W Main Street, Urbana, IL 61801 United States
AU: Dragic, P D
EM: p-dragic@uiuc.edu
AF: University of Illinois, Electrical and Computer Engineering, 1308 W Main Street, Urbana, IL 61801 United States
AU: Liu, A Z
EM: liuzr@uiuc.edu
AF: University of Illinois, Electrical and Computer Engineering, 1308 W Main Street, Urbana, IL 61801 United States
AU: Waldrop, L
EM: lwaldrop@uiuc.edu
AF: University of Illinois, Electrical and Computer Engineering, 1308 W Main Street, Urbana, IL 61801 United States
AU: Plane, J
EM: J.Plane@uea.ac.uk
AF: University of East Anglia, School of Environmental Science, Norwiich, GBR NR47TJ
AB: Solid state lasers are making technological advances which provide a new dimension to active remote sensing, including the Mars atmosphere. Specifically, diode lasers may be pulse-amplified by fiber amplifiers in the infrared, which can be frequency converted at intermediate PRFs into the visible and UV. We are interested in a tripled wavelength system that provides a 1 kHz pulse with average powers of multiple Watts at 355 nm from a single fiber. A unique feature of this laser platform is the ability to scale the power through bundling of an array of such fibers lasers with a common master oscillator. At the increased power levels, this UV laser is well suited to detect Rayleigh scatter from the CO2 atmosphere. These systems can be combined for added power, with a common seeder, to have typical wall plug efficiencies of 1-3 percent. Simulations using a 1 square meter receiver will be shown for sensing the Mars atmosphere between 30 and 120 km from a `dipper' spacecraft, characterizing density and temperature in this altitude domain. Staring Rayleigh lidar will also be discussed. Additionally, the distributions of meteoric metals such as Na, Fe, and K will be modeled in the Martian atmosphere, to assess the usefulness of `resonance' lidars.
DE: 5704 Atmospheres (0343, 1060)
DE: 5794 Instruments and techniques
SC: SPA-Aeronomy [SA]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005